


Detours

by Altered_Karma



Category: Given (Anime), Given (Manga)
Genre: Do not repost, Happy Birthday and Merry Holidays Egg!, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of past suicide, This got a little personal whoops, as per Yuki, do not copy to another site, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21950677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altered_Karma/pseuds/Altered_Karma
Summary: Mafuyu is late to a practice session, so of course the others send Ritsuka to find him. He does, but it takes a little conversation and a lot of tears for them to get anywhere.Ritsuka doesn't have any regrets, though.
Relationships: Satou Mafuyu/Uenoyama Ritsuka
Comments: 3
Kudos: 112





	Detours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eegghhh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eegghhh/gifts).



> Happy Birthday and Merry Hols Egg! I meant to finish this a little earlier, but well. Hell month. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this!

_ Mafuyu, 3:15 PM: I'm at Yoshien Park. _

Ritsuka's phone dies right after he gets the text, and he curses the stupid outlet that can't seem to hold a plug for anything. But now, at least, he knows where Mafuyu is. 

The dummy had probably thought he could take Kedama for a quick run before practice and gotten sidetracked or something. It would be just like Mafuyu to forget the time and get distracted by something or other. 

Begrudgingly, Ritsuka makes a detour from his path to the studio to go and find their wayward vocalist. Akihiko and Haruki would understand. Or maybe they wouldn't, but Ritsuka could deal with them later.

It's not very busy, but it's also a suburb and the middle of a crisp autumn's day; it'd be stranger, probably, if there was an abundance of people about.

It does make his journey to the park a little lonesome, though. He walks instinctively to one side, and realizes he looks foolish when he stands nearly on the curb for no reason at all. He’s so used to Mafuyu being by his side that it feels unnatural to make the journey alone. 

The sounds reach him before the sight does; he hears Mafuyu’s guitar strumming and what sounds like half a zoo. The park is just around the next corner, but already he can hear the cacophony of crows, dogs, cats, and other things he can’t identify causing a ruckus. 

He rounds the corner into the park, and sure enough, there’s Mafuyu, strumming away on his guitar. 

Surrounding him is a menagerie of domesticated and wild animals. Owners stand by with their phones drawn as their pets howl and bark and meow around Mafuyu in a particularly riotous parody of an audience. The boy in question appears to have no problems with this, even though a kitten seems to have turned his head into a nest. Funnily enough, Kedama is nowhere in sight.

“Oh, Uenoyama-kun. There you are.” He holds up his guitar, and immediately a cat melts into the vacant space on his lap. “I got a little distracted.”

Ritsuka forces himself to set his gear down and sit on the ground before responding. “You think?”

Mafuyu grabs a kitten from his shoulder. “It’s cute, isn’t it?”

Ritsuka huffs. “...Yeah.”

Mafuyu hums, and places the creature back where he got it from. “Play with me?”

“We have to get to the studio?”

“Please?” He pats the cat in his lap, like that will absolve him of making them late. “We’ve never had such an attentive audience.”

“...Fine.”

They jam for a few minutes, the animals behaving and their human companions clapping every now and again. Eventually, Mafuyu’s guitar sinks in his hand mid-song, but it takes a moment for Ritsuka’s own playing to come to a halt.

Ritsuka finally looks up when several of the animals lurch towards Mafuyu. The cat he’s playing with doesn’t seem too happy, but Ritsuka has other priorities.

Like the tears currently rolling down Mafuyu’s face.

“Mafu- Mafuyu?” Ritsuka’s hands flail uselessly. 

But Mafuyu just levels him with one of those soft, understanding gazes that he reserves only for Ritsuka, and stops him in his tracks. 

“No, it’s just.” More tears roll as he talks. “I never did this. With Yuki.” His hands release his guitar and crawl up to his face, and quietly owners start reclaiming their animals. Ritsuka shuffles him over to a private area, under a little awning with a table. Mafuyu stopped talking, but Ritsuka knows these silences, knows how they grate on him.

“Mafuyu, talk to me?”

“I never sat in a park and played with Yuki, Uenoyama-kun. I- I never…” He hiccups, small and vulnerable, “And- and there are so many things that I didn’t do with Yuki, that I don’t get to, now, and it sucks, and it hurts, and I hate that I still see him everywhere, and think of him constantly.”

Ritsuka feels his heart sink, down into the dirty pavement. But he kicks dirt onto it anyways, because that’s what Mafuyu needs. “He’s always going to be around, Mafuyu.”

“But, but he’s the one who left! Why does he get to haunt me, even when I’m with you?”

The worst thing about this, about watching Mafuyu break down in front of him, isn’t that Ritsuka is hopeless and helpless and unable to do a damned thing to help him. No, the worst part is the knowing, that Mafuyu has felt like this every day, with every new encounter, and that he’s bottling up this sadness and frustration. Ritsuka can’t begin to imagine how terrifying it must be, to face anything new, to step outside, to get out of bed in the morning.

Which means… “Which means it’s the most incredible thing that you do.”

“H-huh?” Mafuyu says. Ritsuka smiles, no joy in the motion at all, and digs for some tissues to hand him. They’re hidden enough that he lets his hand linger, and he pulls out a tissue to help clean Mafuyu’s face, instead of letting him do it for himself. Ritsuka can’t help with that void in his heart, but he can help with this. 

“Nothing. I was just, can’t imagine how hard it must be to function, some days. So the fact that you come to school every day, play with us, is incredible.” Ritsuka looks into honey eyes, reddened as they are. He carefully places an arm around the other’s shoulders. “I don’t know if I could.”

Mafuyu slips forward in his grasp, to lean against Ritsuka’s chest; his arm drops to Mafuyu’s back. “We’re late to practice.”

“We’re super late and Haruki is going to kill us.” But neither of them attempt to move. 

“ _ Mrrrrow _ .” 

They finally move away from another as the kitten from before clambers into their laps. “ _ Meooooow _ ?”

Ritsuka grabs the little beast and holds it in front of Mafuyu. “See that? This guy… says… cheer up.” Ritsuka grumbles, feeling his face heat up.

Mafuyu blinks the last of his tears away. “Okay, little guy. I’ll cheer up just for you.” Mafuyu stuffs the used tissues into his pocket. “We should probably go.” He looks around for his guitar case, and begins the process of putting things away. He’s just starting to rise when Ritsuka realizes that he can’t just let this moment go; he grabs his hand before Mafuyu can disrupt the atmosphere entirely. 

“Mafuyu, wait. Just, just wait a second.” Ritsuka pulls him back to earth, down to the ground, to anchor him and ensure he’s not going to soar into any suns any time soon. Mafuyu follows him down willingly. “You can’t- I don’t want you just pretending like you’re okay, alright? You, you know you can talk to me, right?” 

Mafuyu’s red eyes widen, and tears flood them again. He doesn’t speak for a long moment, long enough that Ritsuka starts to doubt himself, when he smiles through his watery eyes. It’s the same as the bright one from the port, the same one he’d had when he’d confessed. “Un! But I’ll be okay now, because Uenoyama-kun is here again.”

Ritsuka’s feels his mouth thin in embarrassment. “You can miss him, ya know?”

“I know. I think I always will.” He rises again, and this time it’s Mafuyu pulling Ritsuka to his feet. “I’ll just have to remember that I’ve got you now too.”

Ritsuka guides them out of the park. “I’ll make sure to remind you.”

“Mmm, remind me at least once a day?”

“You ask too much.” _Of course_ , he thinks; he hopes Mafuyu can hear him. Ritsuka moves to one part of the sidewalk, and this time Mafuyu is there to fill the empty place at his side. 

The world feels a little sadder, but it also feels like things have healed a little more. 

~~ They still get the scolding of a lifetime when they arrive at the studio, but Ritsuka thinks it’s well worth it. ~~


End file.
